Inducing strokes to better treat babies with hemimegalencephaly

When a family from Texas received a shocking diagnosis for their newborn daughter, they knew there was one place they needed to go – Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. At birth, Angelique was diagnosed with a rare and devastating condition known as hemimegalencephaly (HME) which causes uncontrollable and frequent seizures. Monica Pearl, M.D., neurointerventional radiologist, and the team at Children’s National have pioneered an approach to treat HME, where they induce controlled strokes to eliminate the affected part of the brain, halting seizures in their tracks. They’re the only team in the world doing this work. Angelique’s parents knew the clock was ticking — every day they waited meant irreversible damage to their daughter’s developing brain.